According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) snapshot released on Monday, 470,000 people in Gaza are facing catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5), and the entire population is experiencing acute food insecurity.
UN agencies have warned that populations across the Gaza Strip are at risk of famine due to Israel’s blockade, and if aid is not allowed in urgently, it may “be too late for many people.”
“It’s imperative that the international community acts urgently to get aid flowing into Gaza again. If we wait until after a famine is confirmed, it will already be too late for many people,” the UN World Food Programme’s Executive Director, Cindy McCain, said in a statement released by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Children in Gaza are at risk of famine as fighting has surged again, border crossings are still closed and food is dangerously scarce.
Together with @WFP, we are warning of a looming catastrophe. https://t.co/ls1GXJoslO pic.twitter.com/5WjEHUF5VW
— UNICEF (@UNICEF) May 12, 2025
IPC Phase 5
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) snapshot released on Monday, the statement said, 470,000 people in Gaza are facing catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5), and the entire population is experiencing acute food insecurity.
The report also projects “an alarming 71,000 children and more than 17,000 mothers will need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition.”
At the beginning of 2025, agencies estimated 60,000 children would need treatment.
We do not need to wait for a declaration of #famine in #Gaza to know that people are already starving, sick and dying, while food and medicines are minutes away across the border.
The analysis released today shows that without immediate access to food and essential supplies,… https://t.co/zVgYzvbwcM pic.twitter.com/E4X0oXZ5yI
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 12, 2025
McCain stressed that families in Gaza “are starving while the food they need is sitting at the border.”
“We can’t get it to them because of the renewed conflict and the total ban on humanitarian aid imposed in early March,” she added.
The statement noted that the IPC snapshot for Gaza projects that “renewed military operations, the ongoing complete blockade, and the critical lack of supplies” needed for survival could push food insecurity, acute malnutrition and mortality levels past the famine thresholds in the coming months.
Soaring Food Prices
Israel has shut all border crossings into Gaza for more than two months, the longest the population has ever faced, the statement noted. This has caused food prices in markets to spike to astronomical levels, putting what little food is available out of reach for most families.
Children in Gaza are again at risk of famine with access to food and life-saving aid blocked and health systems decimated.⁰
This is a manmade crisis.We need a ceasefire, full aid access to Gaza, the protection of children, and release of hostages. NOW https://t.co/PNSu1lpHEo
— Catherine Russell (@unicefchief) May 12, 2025
The vast majority of children in Gaza “are facing extreme food deprivation as confirmed by 17 UN agencies and NGOs in the IPC report.”
Coupled with the severely limited access to health services and critical shortages of clean water and sanitation, rapid increases in acute malnutrition are expected in North Gaza, Gaza and Rafah governorates, the statement emphasized.
Malnutrition among Children
“The risk of famine does not arrive suddenly. It unfolds in places where access to food is blocked, where health systems are decimated, and where children are left without the bare minimum to survive,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
‘One Meal Every Two or Three Days’ – 66,000 Children Suffering Malnutrition
“Hunger and acute malnutrition are a daily reality for children across the Gaza Strip,” Russell added.
She stressed that “We have repeatedly warned of this trajectory and call again on all parties to prevent a catastrophe.”
WFP Stocks Depleted
The statement noted that more than 116,000 metric tons of food assistance – enough to feed one million people for up to four months – is already positioned in aid corridors, ready to be brought in.
The World Food Programme “depleted its last food stocks to support hot meals kitchens for families on 25 April,” it said.
The heartbreakingly harrowing truth of thirst and famine that the children of Gaza are subjected to, captured by the lens of a countryman, barely much older, who is their brother in both hunger and sorrow.
اطفال غزة بين المجاعة و العطش pic.twitter.com/EiA2wHqT2n
— Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) May 9, 2025
Almost a month earlier, all 25 WFP-supported bakeries closed as wheat flour and cooking fuel ran out. The same week, WFP food parcels for families – with two weeks of food rations – were exhausted.
UNICEF said its stocks for preventing malnutrition have run out and supplies for the therapeutic treatment of acute malnutrition “are critically low.”
UNICEF and WFP urged “all parties to prioritize the needs of civilians and allow aid to enter Gaza immediately and uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law.”
Staggering Death Toll
Since Israel’s reneging on the ceasefire on March 18, it has killed and wounded thousands of Palestinians throughout the Gaza Strip through a bloody and ongoing aerial bombardment.
On October 7, 2023, following a Palestinian Resistance operation in southern Israel, the Israeli military launched a genocidal war against the Palestinians, killing over 52,000, wounding more than 118,000, with over 14,000 still missing.
Israel has killed an average of 21.3 Palestinian women per day, or approximately one woman per hour, through direct bombardment of the Gaza Strip since October 2023, according to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
This does not include those who have died “due to the siege,… pic.twitter.com/5Yjnq1ncFt
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) May 12, 2025
Despite habitual condemnation by many countries around the world of the Israeli genocide, little has been done to hold Israel accountable.
Israel is currently under investigation for the crime of genocide by the International Court of Justice, while accused war criminals — including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — are now officially wanted by the International Criminal Court.
The Israeli genocide has been largely defended, supported, and financed by Washington and a few other Western powers.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
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